[Craig Seeman]

[Lillian Young] “I’ve gone through several tutorials including Ripple, Lynda, etc.”

But baed on your comments and all responses here, with a diversity of workflow methods, it seems you din’t understand some aspects or, at least, don’t understand how to reason through when to use what. There’s certainly been a number of critiques in areas where FCPX requires more work than other NLEs but your comments don’t fit that for the most part. Sorry if that offends.

To put it another way. Even if one knows what every button and command does, one has to know how to “think like X” and know when each will get to where you want to go easiest and fastest. It seems your missing when to use what in certain situations.

[Craig Seeman]

Seems you’re not using current version of FCPX which is 10.1.1 or you haven’t gone through tutorials yet.

[Lillian Young] “1. In FCP 7, I would lock my audio track and edit videos on other tracks. In this Storyline environment of X, I read that using a gap clip on the main track is the workaround. “

Tilda key or modifier plus tilda allows you to move primary storyline clips and the connected clips and secondary story line clips stay in place. There are no tracks.

[Lillian Young] “2. If the clips are on top of a Gap clip, then to do simple things like add transitions, I have to create Storylines.”

There’s a keystroke that does this assuming you mean a transition between two connected clips.

[Lillian Young] “4. You cannot simply select in and out points from the storyline. You have to create a Compound Clip and then select a Range? Seriously?! “

Sure you can. This has been possible for a while. A year or so at least. Again it sounds like you’re not using a current version of FCPX.

[Lillian Young] “5. I can’t just grab a clip like a video clip and move or delete it without the audio (detached but attached via stem) being effected. So I have to use the tilda key to move a clip independently while making sure the previously stem-attached clip is connected to something (like a Gap Clip) to avoid magnetic slipping…headache just describing this. “

Tilda key. You don’t have to describe it. It just works. One key. You can delete and replace with gap clip easily too.

[Lillian Young] “6. To get the latest version with major updates, I’d have to upgrade my OS. As a pro with multiple third party plugins and apps, there’s no way I’d upgrade my OS on an early release. Neither do most businesses. “

Apple may tie features and improvements to the OS. Unlike other NLE makers they also make the OS. Actually with any NLE there’s the choice between staying with the OS or not. As a long time Avid user I was often hit with not being able to use other “latest” versions of programs because Avid hadn’t certified an OS update.

I’ve used Avid for more than 10 years. I’ve used FCP “legacy” for more than 10 years. I see FCPX as just another variation which kills the other two for some jobs… and there would be workflows where Avid would kill anything else.

Personally I find patching tracks a major drag. I find it structurally awkward to use tracks for layering and use them for organizing. The result of which involves adding tracks, avoiding patching things to wrong tracks, lots of empty tracks when tracks are needed at one point and not another.

FCPX involves new thinking and new muscle memory but for most repetitive functions (but not all) it seems to be fewer key strokes. I like not having to do complex lassos for moves and I like not having to deal collision avoidance.

You may want to go through Ripple Training tutorials.

[Craig Seeman]

My gut feeling with the new MacPro is not to buy too far over what you really need now and the near future.

Given the GPU situation my hunch is that one might be buying a new box in two or three years at the outside rather than stretching these as a main box as some have done with the towers.

I’m also likely to get the 6 core D500 knowing that in a couple of years where HEVC and other demanding codecs come into common use, a new box with new GPUs that handle codec specific acceleration may be out. Also there may another round of Thunderbolt improvements as pushing higher data rates become more common.

A path example might be the difference in how the Towers improved between 2006 and 2009.

Just some personal speculative reasoning.

[Craig Seeman]

[Bret Williams] “Apple really needs to start releasing products in January. It would make them look newer longer. Heck, the 2013 MacPro already sounds like it’s a year old and hardly anyone has one yet!”

Or do what car dealers do. The late 2013 computers are actually 2014 models.

[Craig Seeman]

I do wish they had video tutorials for all this. It looks like they haven’t produced any tutorials in close to a year. I think they’re under selling, under marketing this.

Apparently they’ll soon have competition from a company/product called Score Addiction as well.

[Craig Seeman]

Handbrake’s x264 codec “blows the doors” off of Quicktime (Apple’s H.264 codec). It’s not even close except at high data rates. I can only guess you’re not understanding the Handbrake settings. They’re not easy to understand. Most just stick with the presets and modify what they do understand (like data rate).
x264 encoding is more or less the “gold standard” in H.264 encoding.

Other programs like Episode and Squeeze now offer x264. Apple won’t license third party encoders though. Supposedly their new High Profile CABAC encoding comes close (but not quite there) in Compressor 4.1.

The x264 encoder you’re finding in Quicktime Pro is EOL (development stopped around 2011) so I don’t doubt it was never developed for H.264 broadcast encoding.

[Craig Seeman]

From their pictures it looks like it was just using the Express Track functions which control duration and mood rather than the full version, which has timing and hit markers, etc.

[Craig Seeman]

Glad to see this finally happen. Going back a couple of years they seemed as if they weren’t all that interesting in direct FCPX support. Granted it’s still most flexible to work in SonFire Pro directly as it gives you much more customization by hand.

[Craig Seeman]

Certainly H.264 is being used for broadcast delivery. It’s amongst Comcast’s specs and many others.

I’m not sure how you’re judging quality assuming you’ve made an interlaced file but playing interlaced on a progressive only computer monitor is not a proper way to judge.

Quicktime has been out of development for some time. I don’t think it was ever intended for H.264 broadcast encoding. I don’t think it slipped through the cracks. I don’t think there was any reason to pay attention to H.264 interlaced at that time.

Telestream Episode Pro is designed for encoding for broadcast delivery. That’s why I use it.

Generally the quality from Handbrake is excellent. Exploiting the full value of x264 encoding is not simple though.

[Craig Seeman]

You might investigate Handbrake although I have no personal experience in creating H.264 interlaced with it.